With the recent announcement that the mana regeneration while casting talents — Meditation, Arcane Meditation, and Intensity — will be changing in Patch 2.3 to restore an additional 15% of mana while casting (up to 30% from 15%), I knew I’d have to revisit my previous article, Mystery No More: Spirit and MP5, since much of it is based around the idea that Intensity gives a 15% return. Unfortunately, I lost the original spreadsheet used to crunch the numbers and spent a number of days looking for it before finally resigning myself to recreating it from scratch.

Rather than only evaluating mana regeneration from Spirit at the new 30% Intensity, I also recalculated it at 15% for comparison’s sake. Once again, I’ve graphed it over the % time spent within the Five Second Rule and according to the use of the following talents and abilities:

Intensity (both 2.2 and 2.3 versions)

Innervate

Living Spirit

Possible combinations of the above

Here’s the graph of the new Intensity vs. the old Intensity. Future values are shown in a darker shade of the plots of their current values (eg. Red for “2.3 Living Spirit + Innervate“, pink for the current value.

From this graph, note the following:

With 2.2 Intensity, you would need to be inside the 5SR (considered casting) no more than 32.5% of the time for the value of Spirit relative to MP5 to match that which is currently budgeted by Blizzard. With 2.3 Intensity, that number is increased to 40%. With Living Spirit, the number increases from 45% to 53%. With Intensity and Innervate, the number increases from 62.5% to 78%. With Living Spirit, Intensity, and Innervate, the number goes from 75% to 92.5%.

Assuming a Druid has both Intensity and is using her Innervate at every opportunity, the changes to Intensity with Patch 2.3 will make the value of Spirit much more closely match that currently being assigned in Item Values, especially if she is able to remain outside the 5SR 22% or more of the time.

Even if you were always within the 5SR (Lifebloom maintenance) and assuming you are using Innervate at every opportunity, 1 MP5 will be approximately worth 3.1 Spirit (down from 4.3 prior to Patch 2.3). With Living Spirit, 1MP5 is worth approximately 2.8 Spirit (down from 3.7 prior to Patch 2.3). That’s an increase of value in Spirit by 28%, 24% if you factor in Living Spirit (the additional mana regenerated with Living Spirit is outweighed by the mana regenerated by Innervate so even though you will get a substantial increase, the rate of increase is not as high).

Factoring in Blessing of Kings

By popular request, I’ve added a graph that compares the valuation of Spirit relative to MP5 with Blessing of Kings, using the 2.3 value for Intensity (30% mana regeneration while casting). Non-BoK values are graphed in a lighter color than their BoK values and, as one might expect, the 1.1 factor on total Spirit causes each plot to shift slightly down:

I am no good at math so please bear with me. Let’s say by using the chart above I’ve determined that 1Mp5 = 5 Spirit. Is it then reasonable to convert said determination into a stat that could be used to compare two items?

For example let’s take two items with similar stats but different amounts of Spirit and Mp/5
Guise of the Tidal Lurker: Spirit 0, Mp/5 15
Cowl of Nature’s Breath: Spirit 34, Mp/5 0

Is it a fair comparison to say that the 15Mp/5 at a ratio of 1Mp/5 = 5 Spirit, would be the equivalent of 75 Spirit in order to get an idea of what the Mp/5 would mean if it was instead Spirit on said item?

It would seem that this would be a decent way to compare items with Mp/5 and no spirit or Spirit and no Mp/5, but being mathematically challenged I’m not sure.

@Voxella: Yes, that’s exactly right. You can use the above chart to determine what your personal overall value for Spirit vs. MP5 is based on your talents and how much time you spend inside and outside the 5SR. You handled your example exactly correct. From a purely mana regeneration standpoint, the Guise of the Tidal Lurker wins out. You could of course convert it the opposite way (which is what I do since I like MP5). In that case, you’d be comparing 15 MP5 (Guise) vs. 6.8 MP5 (Cowl). =)